My Coat of Many Colors

My recycled collage creativity was in full swing this past week, but in an entirely different way. Looking around my studio, my eyes wandered to boxes organized by color, stuffed with fabric remnants. Much like I have collected found objects for my collage work, I have also collected lengths of fabric over the years. When I finished a quilt, I put the odds and ends into their color box to wait for inspiration.

Inspiration arrived this week in two ways:

• Seeing the videos of Dolly Parton talking and singing about her coat of many colors that her mama made for her out of scraps.

A replica of that famous coat.

• And coming across the picture of Irene Latham and me meeting for the first time at NCTE Boston a couple of years ago. I was obsessed with her Boho long jacket made with many different colorful prints.

I knew I wanted to have a coat like that. Then last week it occurred to me, maybe I should make one with my scraps.

I needed a pattern and enough of my own quilted yardage to sew the coat. I figured I would need 4 yards of material that did not exist. I was nervous, but that had never stopped me before. ;)

After my mom died, I took two boxes of my parents' clothing, knowing I would use it one day for something crafty— clothing or a quilt. In my stash, I found a pile of coordinating colors I really liked, three scarves, and the lace dress my mother had worn on her 50th wedding anniversary.

After time spent with my scissors, I had yards of creamy lace to add to my coat.

My beautiful mother in her lacy angel dress and my Dad—who were so happy on this 50th anniversary, with all their family gathered.

I started cutting 3" and 5" strips of fabric and sewing them together at random.

I was so happy to use my mother and grandmother's scarves.

After I had a few lengths, I laid them out on the floor to see how they lay best, then sewed them together.

It took a while, but I had just enough fabric to cut out the jacket.

Finally, I had my own coat of many colors.

The color this week comes from Crayola's "Colors of the World" collection and was inspired by my mother's lace.

• Extra Light Almond

Happy Poetry Friday, Everyone. Please stop by to see the lovely harvest poems on our host Rose Cappelli's blog, IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES. I could almost smell the freshly baked apple pie and cinnamon :)